


On Any Given Monday

by anyanka_eg



Series: The Milk Tray Man [1]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-18
Updated: 2011-03-18
Packaged: 2017-10-17 02:43:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/172064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anyanka_eg/pseuds/anyanka_eg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Rachel is brave, Danny is angry and Steve is emotionally stunted. Just your average Monday then.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Any Given Monday

**Author's Note:**

> Beta-ed by the truely splendid Azrael, who's ability to write OTT bad guy dialog is actually disturbing, and the amzing Ionaonie who ultimately gave me the title. And the original inspiration even if this is nothing like what we actually talked about.

As much as he didn't want to be, Danny was still a little in love with Rachel. Not in the way that Matty had meant - and thinking about that was still like a knife to his chest - but in the way that she was smart and funny, and as brave as a fucking lion when it came right down to it.

Of course, he kind of wished he hadn't had to learn just how brave she was when she stepped between him and the guy waving a gun around like the complete lunatic he was. He should be the one being brave, he should be stepping between the mother of his child and danger but being cuffed to a chair was really cramping his style. That and the piece of duct tape over his mouth.

“I'm sure that we can find so me way out of this situation without anyone getting hurt.” If Danny hadn't been married to her for ten years he was pretty sure he wouldn't have caught the slight tremor in her voice. God, she was amazing.

Of course, her brilliance was probably what had gotten her into this mess in the first place so it's not all made of win. Danny was pretty sure that he and the rest of the Five-0 team would have become targets of Krest's deranged scheme anyway but Rachel had drawn the man's creepy stalker attention without even having met him before today. Danny was grudgingly impressed by the surveillance the man must have been running on them because none of the team had spotted it. Not bad for a newbie bad guy.

“Rachel, you adorable girl,” Milton Krest said with overly familiar fondness, his voice grating on Danny's nerves like nails on a chalkboard. “The whole point of this exercise is to get someone hurt.”

“Mr. Krest,” Rachel said, her voice calm and soothing even though Danny knew she must be terrified. “Milton. My…darling. I know that you don't really want to hurt anyone, you just want us to get on with our lives. Let Danny go, and we can do that. Together.”

Danny thrashed in his chair, shouting 'no, no, no' into the tape over his mouth, but Rachel didn't turn round, didn't even flinch. He knew, in his head, that she was just acting, trying to buy them time so Steve and the rest of the team could find them, but he couldn't stop his heart trying to beat out of his chest with fear that the man might believe her. He didn't want to think about trying to find her if Krest took her off somewhere else.

“Rachel, my dear, your compassion is one of the things I love most about you,” Krest replied, taking a step to the side so he could see Danny again. “But I can’t allow Detective Williams to interfere in our relationship. The very fact that you're trying to persuade me to release him tells me that you're still conflicted about your feelings towards him. I simply can’t have that.”

Danny looked right at the guy, happy he could see whatever was coming his way, even if this was where he finally died. He was going to be so pissed off if it was. Not because he would be dead, although that would be really fucking irritating, but because he couldn't blame anyone but himself for this.

He was a cop, a veteran of over a hundred cases, and he'd let some mad, middle-aged billionaire get the drop on him. He wasn't talking about the three hired goons with the taser, because he was pretty sure even Ninja-boy McGarrett wouldn't have escaped those guys. No, he was kicking himself for not spotting that the guy they'd been investigating was three fries short of a happy meal and had decided he was some kind of super-villain in the mold of Dr Evil.

Admittedly they'd only talked to the guy at his office and his condo in Honolulu and neither of those locations had indicated he was anything other than a very wealthy, fairly ruthless businessman. This place though, where ever it was, this screamed of its owner’s megalomaniacal delusions of grandeur.

He was pretty sure they were below ground because the large concrete and steel room had no windows at all. Even without the daylight Danny was pretty sure the place would make the Super-villain edition of Better Homes and Gardens. It had banks of computers and screens that put Chin-Ho's setup to shame, a pretty stylish conference table and a whole wall that looked out into a vast tank of beautiful clear blue water with about a million sharks circling lazily in it. Jesus, it was like Krest had gotten a book titled ‘A Thousand and One Ways to Be a Super-villain’ and cherished its secrets as if it were the word of God.

“He's the father of my daughter,” Rachel explained, trying to step between Danny and the gun again. “She needs him, especially if I'm staying with you.”

“I'm not a monster, Rachel,” Krest said, sounding offended that she could ever have formed that opinion despite being snatched from her home and dragged to his super secret lair at gun point. “Grace will be joining us in our new life.”

Danny thrashed again. He knew it was pointless, the cuffs were already cutting into his wrists, but it was completely instinctual. God, Gracie. He hoped that his team had gotten to her and made sure she and Stan were safe. He might not like Rachel's husband all that much but at least he was playing with a full deck unlike this wackadoodle.

“Milton,” Rachel began and then paused, frozen for a tiny fraction of a second, before she continued trying to reason with their kidnapper. Danny wasn't listening though because like Rachel he'd seen what was happening in the shark tank behind Krest.

Cutting through the water like he was born to it, was a black clad figure that he just knew had to be Steve, even though the dim form was still pretty much in the shadows at the back of the tank. It wasn't only that he kind of recognized Steve's swimming style, it was that he didn't know anyone else who was insane enough to attempt a rescue by swimming through a tank of man eating sharks.

Danny tried to keep his eyes on Krest and make sure the madman didn't turn around to check out what Danny was staring at behind him, but it was really difficult. As Steve got closer to the front of the tank, Danny could see he had a small cylinder of air clamped into his mouth, one of his dry bags strapped to his back and a knife in one hand.

Suddenly one of the sharks, most of which had been ignoring Steve as though he were one of them, turned and darted forward, closing in on Steve from behind. Danny's heart was in his mouth. He was about to watch Steve get ripped to pieces and he couldn't do a thing to warn him.

Steve turned at the last minute, as though he felt the movement of the water, and punched the shark in the nose, kicking it as it turned away from him. Jesus Christ, Danny thought, his heart hammering, he might actually stroke out before Steve got out of the tank.

Steve watched the sharks for a few seconds before turning and swimming to the top of the tank, rising out of the water and catching the edge of the walkway in one fluid movement. Danny didn't know how he did it but Steve pulled himself up and out of the tank completely silently, barely making a splash. His body was a perfect balance of power and control, the bunch and flex of the muscles in his arms and shoulders the only sign that it wasn't as easy as climbing out of the bathtub.

“Rachel, don't you see **,”** Krest said, stepping closer to her and using the hand not holding the gun to pull her tight against him. “Once I get rid of this fool and his partner we can get on with the rest of our lives. I've got so much I want to share with you, Rachel. I can make you an empress, lay the world at your feet, and we can rule our dominion together. We’ll be a modern day Napoleon and Josephine. It will be magical!”

Danny wanted to laugh. Well, no, he wanted to gut the guy with a rusty spoon, but he'd be laughing while he did it. Who said shit like that? Seriously? He blamed Steve for this. He'd never had to listen to badly written Bond villain dialog before he'd been co-opted to the Five-0 by the crazy SEAL.

The gun was now pointing directly at Danny's head, Krest's finger on the trigger, and Danny couldn't see Steve any more, his view of the tank obscured by the other man's body. He didn't want to die, he really didn't, but he guessed that Steve would at least make sure Rachel was safe. That was almost enough.

Krest's arm twitched suddenly, the gun slipping from his grip and skidding across the room. Steve appeared behind him, an expression of grim determination on his face as Krest crumpled to the ground, never making a sound, with Steve’s knife stuck in the base of his skull.

Rachel jerked away from the body ignoring the hand Steve was trying to offer to support her. She looked down at the body of the man who'd held them captive for almost a day, took a deep breath and kicked him hard in the face. “Bastard!”

“Alright then,” Steve said, a smile tugging at his lips as he stepped over Krest towards Danny. “I guess you'll be okay for now.”

Steve looked him straight in the eye as he gripped the edge of the tape and ripped. Danny shouted in pain as the glue pulled out hairs and ripped off patches of the delicate skin on his lips. “Son of a bitch.”

“Me or Krest?” Steve asked, crouching down to work on the cuffs. “Because that's not a nice way to greet the man who's just saved your life.”

“Both of you,” Danny grumbled, sucking his lips into his mouth and tasting blood as Steve undid the cuffs and brought Danny's hands up examine the damage to his wrists.

“Not too bad,” Steve said, the humor all gone from his voice as he looked at the bruised and bleeding skin. “We need to get you checked out.”

“Knock it off. I'm fine,” Danny ordered standing up for the first time in what felt like an eternity and shuffling over to his ex-wife like he was an old man. “Rachel? Are you okay, honey?”

“Oh, I'm just perfect,” she said shakily, dragging her gaze away from the body on the floor and looking at him. “After all, it's a perfectly normal day isn't it? Being kidnapped from my home and dragged to the underground lair of some mad super-villain who thinks he's in love with me, even though we've never met, is something I do every Monday. Having the crazy man threaten to kill the father of my child was a special treat, I will admit. And as for the rescue by the psychotic Milk Tray man over there, well that was the fulfillment of my childhood dream. I'm just bloody fantastic, you moron.”

Danny couldn't help grinning at her as he stepped close and wrapped his arms round her. She was just the most amazing woman. After all she'd been through today she was still cracking jokes and he needed to return the favor, bring a little levity into the room. “All because the lady loves Milk Tray.”

Rachel huffed out a laugh into his neck, her arms tight around him. She drew in a shaky breath and blew it out before letting go of him and stepping back. Danny could see her gaze drifting over his shoulder to where his partner was no doubt standing looking like an awkward teenager, shifting from foot to foot and trying not to watch the public display of affection. Danny sighed.

He turned around and faced Steve, who was chewing on his bottom lip and staring at the shark tank as though that it could offer him some answer to the great cosmic question of why he was a giant goof.

“And you, you huge _pain in my ass_!” Danny said, moving towards him with the confident swagger returning to his step. “You swam through a tank of sharks. Tiger sharks, no less. Are you actually psychotic? Do you want to give me a coronary? Why can't you use doors like normal human beings? What is _wrong_ with you?”

“Danny, I...you were gone. I couldn't find you.” Steve was looking at him now and it's all right there on his face, everything that they don't really ever say to each other.

“You did though, didn't you?” Danny said softly, moving in close to Steve, not caring that he was dripping wet, and reached up to his partner's face, his thumb rubbing along the cheekbone. “You found me, babe.”

Danny slid his hand from Steve's face to the back of his neck and dragged him down so he could kiss him. Steve seemed to resist and Danny pulled back a little to find Steve nervously looking over at Rachel as though they were doing something they shouldn't. God, the man was an idiot.

“Steven, if you don't kiss me right now I'm going to kick your ass so bad,” Danny ordered, standing on Steve's bare foot and applying enough pressure to get his attention. “More importantly, you're going to be sleeping on the sofa.”

“Danno,” Steve complained but brought his lips down to meet Danny's in a pathetically chaste kiss.

It was kind of sad that even after six months together Steve still had this hang up about Rachel. Danny wasn't really sure if Steve thought that one day they'd realize they shouldn't have gotten divorced and the dingbat was trying to make it easier on Danny if that happened. Or maybe he thought Rachel would find the idea of them together so appalling she'd take Grace away. Either way, he was so very wrong.

“You and I are going to be having words, babe,” he threatened when Steve pulled back. “But we need to get out of here first.”

“We just need to make sure the door to this complex is open when Chin and Kono get here.” Steve was back in super-ninja-SEAL mode like someone had flicked a switch in his main processor and Danny almost wanted to slap him. “There's an electronic lock to the main doors that we need to deactivate from in here.”

“Of course there is,” Danny sighed, throwing his hands in the air in frustration at Steve and the whole day. “What kind of self respecting evil genius would be without a command bunker with electronic locks?”

“It's pretty sophisticated,” Steve explained, sitting down in the chair at the bank of screens and starting to push buttons. “It's got two separate circuits, both with their own backup generators, about six layers of password encoded security and...”

Danny rolled his eyes at Rachel, who smiled, but he could see the strain from the past few hours catching up with her.

“Steven, much as I'd love to hear about all the complex scientific wonders here, I just want to take Rachel home, hug my kid and then take you home and do unspeakable things to you.”

Steve twitched and his ears went red. Danny knew he shouldn't be torturing him but he also knew he was never, ever going to get tired of making his normally unselfconscious partner blush like a virgin. He'd give it up though, right now, if it meant that Steve stopped thinking he was some kind of second choice behind Rachel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Babe,” Danny called to Steve, as he crossed the bedroom from the bathroom. “Come to bed.”

“Just a minute,” came the reply from downstairs.

Danny sighed. He knew what Steve was doing. He was checking and rechecking the doors, fiddling with the alarm system, going from room to room making sure everything was secure. He got all OCD about security whenever something happened in the day that was a threat to Danny, something that wasn't in Steve's control anyway. It was kind of sweet, if a little annoying.

It reminded Danny a lot of the dog, Charlie Bacon, his folks had when he was growing up. CB would turn in circles, around and around, until the patch of carpet was just right to lie on. Then he'd flop down for all of about five minutes before getting up to pace the room, do the circle thing again and then lie down. If they were lucky he'd only do this for about an hour before he finally settled. Danny could usually keep Steve to under twenty minutes pacing so he counted that as a win, even if Steve was nowhere near as good at fetch as CB was.

But tonight Danny didn't want to wait until Steve had gone through his routine, he wanted them in bed and wrapped round each other. They were both exhausted from the day's adventures and, despite promising to do all manner of things to Steve when they got home, he knew they needed to sleep more than anything else. Pinning Steve to the bed and licking him all over could wait until the morning. He headed down the stairs, following the sound of window latches being clicked into place, to find Steve in the den.

“Babe, come to bed.”

Steve looked at him, the mixture of guilt, sheepishness and determination on his face  
making him look like Charlie Bacon the day he'd been caught eating Danny's birthday cake. “I've just got to finish this.”

“Everything's locked up and the alarm's on,” Danny said, trying to sound reassuring but he was fairly certain that he sounded exasperated if the change to aneurysm face was anything to go by. “And I'm safe, everyone's safe, you found us, you did your job. You can stand down and relax.”

Steve's face pinched up with frustration and hurt and Danny wanted to kick himself for what he'd just said. “It's not about my job...”

Danny got into Steve space, grabbing his fisted-up hands and forcing him to relax his fingers. “I know, babe. I know. Come to bed.”

“I've got to...”

“No, Steve,” Danny countered, sliding his hands up Steve's arms, his fingers sneaking under the sleeves of his t-shirt. “I was forced to listen to a bad Dr. Evil knockoff pontificate all day, without the funny parts I might add, and you were almost eaten by sharks. I’m done. You're done. We’re both completely wiped out, so come to bed so we can get some sleep.”

Steve didn't say anything but Danny could see him trying to find the words to say 'if I don't do these checks I won't sleep' without sounding like a complete loon. Well, as Danny's mom often said, usually when she was telling his dad what to do, marriage is all about compromise. He and Steve might not be technically married, but they were doing a passable impression most days. And wasn’t that just a kick in the head, right there?

“You've got two minutes, you crazy goof,” Danny said. “And then I'm going to go and sleep in the guest room.”

Steve flashed him a grateful smile and dashed off as though Danny had just told him he had a two minute supermarket sweep through the armory at Pearl Harbor. Danny rolled his eyes and headed up the stairs again. He doubted that Steve would really be up in two minutes but he had high hopes for it being under five.

Danny was in bed when Steve bounded up the stairs four minutes later, already shedding his clothes. That was never going to get old. Danny was pretty happy, confident even, with his body, even if he could stand to be a touch taller, but Steve was completely uninhibited. Danny suspected that Steve would be naked a whole hell of a lot more if he didn't have to worry about what other people would think. Danny had even investigated a clothing optional resort on the Big Island and was seriously considering booking them for a weekend just to see Steve swimming in all his naked, happy glory.

“I'm done,” Steve said, folding his clothes in the hamper in the closet. “Sorry that, well, you know...I just have to, you know, the doors.”

“I know, babe,” Danny agreed with a smile, turning to face Steve as he slipped between the sheets. “You're a giant freak, but I love you anyway.”

Steve's expression wavered between his kicked puppy face and the one that Danny hadn't named yet that appeared whenever he told the big oaf he loved him. It was funny, not funny-ha-ha but funny-kind-of-sad, that Steve had a super secret special face for when someone told him they loved him.

Danny rolled his eyes, a smile pulling at his lips, as he stretched his arm out across the bed. Steve plastered himself down Danny's side, snuffling his face into his neck and slung an arm over his chest as he tangled their legs together. His own Steve shaped blanket. This was bliss.

Except...

“Steve?” he said, scratching his nails lightly up and down the nape of Steve's neck, making him shiver.

“I thought you wanted to sleep,” Steve murmured into Danny's neck, mouthing damp kisses into the skin under his jaw.

“I do, but I want to ask you something first.”

Steve tensed in his arms before obviously forcing himself to relax. Danny wanted to sigh with frustration but figured it wouldn't be the best way to start the conversation. Steve had issues, Danny knew that, but sometimes they blindsided him. Danny wasn't exactly the poster boy for well adjusted either, but he figured he at least had a basic grasp of how relationships were supposed to work. He'd had sisters who read Cosmo after all, that had to count for something.

“Are you embarrassed by us?” Danny asked, already knowing it wasn't true. He just needed to get Steve riled enough to forget that he'd gotten his emotional cripple badge in the boy scouts.

“What? No!” Steve almost shouted, levering himself up on to one elbow to loom over Danny. “How could you even ask that?”

“How can I ...? I ask because every single time I try to acknowledge we're in an actual relationship around Rachel you turn into some blushing school girl who's afraid of being seen kissing a boy. What conclusion are you expecting me to draw from that?”

“I'm not...” Steve started, quickly running out of steam and throwing himself back onto the bed in frustration. He glared at the ceiling for a few moments before scrubbing both his hands over his face, letting out an annoyed moan. He sat up and Danny grabbed his arm before he could swing his legs off the bed.

“Steve, don't,” Danny said, feeling an edge of panic that he'd made a monumental mistake bringing this whole thing up. “We can leave it. It's okay.”

“It's not okay, though is it?” Steve demanded angrily, turning to face him. “It bugs you and it annoys the hell out of me. It's stupid but I can't help it and I don't know what to do.”

“Do you want to try to talk it through?” Danny asked, wincing at how much like a fucking therapist he sounded.

“Not really,” Steve sighed, lying back down on the bed. “But I guess I have to.”

“No Steve, you don't,” Danny countered, getting just a little annoyed now. “You don't have to do anything. This isn't some chore or some hoop that I'm going to make you jump through. I'll happily leave you to sort through whatever it is that's going on in that thick head of yours.”

“No! Don't go.” Steve moved like lightening and Danny was pinned to the bed by the other man's body. “I'll talk okay, just don't leave.”

Danny sucked in a couple of breaths to try to get his heart rate back under control. Jesus, he was never going to get used to how quick and powerful Steve was when he wanted to be. Or how wrongheaded he could be when it came to relationships. “I'm not going anywhere, Steve. Regardless of if you talk to me about whatever is the problem with Rachel is.”

“But you said...”

“I meant I would let you work it out in your own time,” Danny explained, running his hands up and down Steve's sides. “I don't want you to feel you have to tell me every thought in your head. Apart from the fact that we've already established that your brain is a miserable place, we're two separate people and it's okay to take some time to think things through before we talk about them. Or don't.”

Steve stared at him for a few moments, long enough that Danny wondered if he'd actually been speaking another language, before he let out a big shuddering breath and collapsed onto Danny. His face was pressed against Danny's neck and he could feel Steve's lips working against his skin, kissing the words he was whispering into Danny's flesh. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

Danny didn't say anything. He didn't need to. He had one hand curled snug against the back of Steve's skull and the other running up and down the smooth curve of his back. He just let Steve press the words into his skin and held on while the best thing that had happened to him since Grace worked through his emotional turmoil.

Steve's lips stilled and they lay there tangled up in each other, neither seemingly willing to break the silence that was wrapped round them. Soon enough though, Danny began to feel the suffocating effects of having the bigger man completely blanketing him. Before he had to say anything, Steve rolled them so Danny was bracketed against Steve's side, his head resting on his shoulder just below the H.R. Geiger tattoo that, if he was honest, weirded him out a little.

“I'm not embarrassed about us,” Steve said quietly, his arm tightening round Danny's shoulder in a clear sign for him to just shut up and listen. “I'll happily take a full page ad in the Star telling everyone that I love you if that's what it takes.”

Danny didn't say anything, just pressed his lips to Steve's chest and tightened the arm he's thrown across his stomach to let him know he appreciated the thought, to the point where his eyes may have been a little damp, but he didn't really think that an ad was necessary.

“It's just...god this is so stupid,” Steve said, tensing up under Danny. “It's just that you have all this history, you and Rachel, and that's never going to go away.”

Danny started to pull back at that, to open up with both barrels and tell Steve exactly what he thought of that. Well, he would have if he could even think of what to say to something so monumentally stupid. Steve's arm tightened like iron holding Danny in place and he carried on speaking.

“I don't mean I want it to stop. I never want you to have to fight with Rachel because I would rather put a bullet in my head than come between you and Grace.”

Steve sounded so serious, so determined to do the right thing, that Danny felt his heart break for him. God, he wanted to go back in time and smack Steve's dad, and possibly his mom too, in the mouth for screwing up their son. Duty was fine and good. Duty was what got you though all kinds of hideous shit that you just had to do as a human being, even more so as a cop. But there had always been something in Steve's unwavering sense of responsibility that made Danny want to hug the stoic little kid he'd seen in the few photos Steve had of himself as a child.

“And that's part of it. When you're together, when you talk and you share something, like today with that milk thing joke, part of me wants to punch her in the face for even looking you but a bigger part of me feels like I'm the one who's intruding. That I'm stopping you being there for her and Grace.”

“Steve,” Danny started, unable to hold his tongue any more.

“I know it's stupid,” Steve interrupted, his voice a little angry and unsure, as though he was trying to convince himself Danny wasn't going to leave him at the first chance he got. “I know you're not going to go back to Rachel. I know that. But I just...I don't know. It's stupid.”

“Can I say something now?” Danny asked, with none of the usual sarcasm that phrase would carry. He pulled back a little, rising up on his elbow to look down at Steve, who was chewing his lip, his face screwed up in consternation.

Once he'd asked the question though, and taken Steve's silence for acceptance, he wasn't exactly sure what to say. He slid his hand up Steve's side, laying it over his heart and brushing his thumb back and forth through the soft chest hair. He loved Steve so much, would do anything for him, follow him to the ends of the Earth, but he had no idea how to reassure him that he wasn't going anywhere.

He could make promises, say a vow, but Steve knew as well as he did that in the end that meant nothing. That was part of his history with Rachel after all. He could try to explain how he felt, how much Steve meant to him, but he was pretty sure he'd already done that too. Like Steve said, he knew but he couldn't help the doubts. And maybe that was it. Maybe he just needed to hear it was okay to have doubts.

“When Grace was born,” he said finally, looking right into Steve's eyes and praying he'd understand what Danny was trying to say. “When I first held her, I was so scared. She was this little bundle of squashed up person who I'd help bring into the world and I knew that I wasn't good enough for her.”

“Danno...”

“No...it's okay,” he said, half reassuring, half begging not to be interrupted. “I knew because she was so precious, so fragile, so perfect. I knew I was going to screw it up. I was going to drop her or make her sick. I was going to drive too fast and crash the car on the way home. I was going to pass on all my flaws and make her as fucked up as I was. I was going to get killed doing the job I selfishly love. I knew I was going to mess up so bad that I should just walk out then and there.”

Danny paused, remembering those terrifying moments. He still felt a stab of guilt that the first thoughts about his daughter weren't filled with the joy he thought he should be feeling. Thankfully Steve didn't say anything, just put his hand on top of Danny's where it rested on his chest and squeezed.

“And then she opened her eyes,” Danny said, his lips twisting in a fond smile. “She seemed to look right at me, even though I know they can't really see at that age, and there she was. My daughter, the best thing I have ever done. And right at that moment I couldn't imagine being anywhere else than with her for every minute of every day. I still thought I'd fuck it up, still do really, but I knew I was going to do everything I could to be the best father I could be.”

Steve was watching him, obviously waiting for him to get to the point where the story bore any relation to what they'd been talking about, but trusting that he would. Danny worried about screwing things up with Steve, like he had done with Rachel, but there was no way that was going to stop him taking the chance that he wouldn't.

“The doubts don't go away, babe” Danny murmured, willing Steve to understand what he was saying. “Not when it's important anyway. You just have to grit your teeth and keep fighting.”

Steve looked away, down at the where their hands met on his chest, and then back at Danny. He smiled, that big dopey, stupid smile that made something in Danny's chest bloom with heat. “I can do that.”

Danny grinned and then leaned down to kiss him, a slow, easy slide of lips and tongues. There wasn't any of the fire that often raged out of control, just a slow burn that could be banked until morning. Now that he'd talked to Steve his mind was finally ready to let go of the day and he could feel the exhaustion pressing down like a lead weight on his body.

He drew back, with a final press of his lips, and lay down with his head on Steve's shoulder. He kissed the skin under his mouth and let himself drift off. He knew he wouldn't stay awake much longer, he didn't think Steve would either, and then they'd shift in their sleep, like they always did, so Danny was on his back with Steve sprawled over him.

“What's a Milk Tray man?” Steve murmured, before a massive, noisy yawn overtook him.

“I'll tell you in the morning, babe,” Danny mumbled, feeling himself right on the edge of sleep. “Right after I do those unspeakable things I promised.”

~fin~

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: This came about when Ionaonie and I were joking that Steve is the Milk Tray man. Milk Tray, for those of you not familiar with Cadburys chocolates, are a brand of boxed chocolates that are right at the bottom of the scale of chic but in 60s, 70s and 80s were advertised as something special. The adverts were done in the style of James Bond delivering chocolates and then f-ing off before the Lady found them.
> 
> This is one of the ads http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0ya5kh4_ZM&feature=related and trust me when I say they made a lasting impression on us teenagers growing up in the UK. We know they were cheesy but still there's something about the whole thing that just played to a teenage girl's psyche. I think that Rachel, being only a few years younger than me, will have had the same reaction and probably in 10 years of marriage mentioned them to Danny. Brits do still refer to the ads, for example when I told my dad a friend was learning to paraglide (he's already a diver) Dad asked if he needed to deliver cheap chocolates to his latest flame (he's a womanizer too).
> 
> Anyway, this turned from being a bit of a crack fic into something totally different and not really at all about Steve being the Milk Tray man, although there might be a coda that covers that side of things.


End file.
